Psych was rejected by every TV network.

Psych was rejected by every TV network. But wait for it, it managed to go 8 seasons and 3 movies. Psych premiered 20 years ago this month, so here are some things I bet you never knew about it. The story behind Psych starts in the 1970s in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where future screenwriter Steve Franks grew up, the son of a Los Angeles Police Department officer. Franks's father really wanted his son to go into law enforcement as well, and so he tried to teach young Steven to be observant. Steve's father would often bring him to a restaurant and ask him to close his eyes and count the hats in a scene. A scene that should sound familiar to Psych fans. Steve Franks did not end up becoming a cop like his dad. Instead, he went to UC Irvine, getting a bachelor's degree and then he went to grad school for film at Loyola Marymount University, ultimately deciding to try his hand at screenwriting. In the mid-90s, while working at Disneyland, Franks wrote the script that would eventually become Adam Sandler's 1999 hit Big Daddy. That got him a blind deal with Sony Pictures, and so he pitched them something inspired by his childhood, a movie about a very observant detective who pretends to have psychic powers. Sony passed, but Franks held onto the idea. Eventually, it should be a TV show. He was originally calling it Psyche with an E at the end, like Psyche. And a few years later, in the mid-2000s, Franks pitched the idea to producer Kelly Kulchak at Tagline Pictures. And she loved it. So they took it to the four major broadcast networks: Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC. They all laughed in the pitch meeting, but none of them wanted to buy it, probably because its mix of comedy and drama was unusual then, despite the fact that Franks was inspired by ABC's comedy-drama hybrid detective show Moonlighting from the 1980s. But anyway, they then pitched it to several cable networks. But again, they were rejected by all of them. And so their final pitch went out to the USA Network. Another detective show, Monk, was emerging for USA at the time, so they agreed to pick up Psych, seeing it as a strong companion piece for Monk, and they then dropped the E from the title. According to a recent interview with the TV Academy Emmys website, James Roday Rodriguez said he was about to leave Hollywood for the script. He said he'd been trying to break into TV for about five or six years, but the projects he landed went nowhere, so he decided to move back to New York and do some theater. But then his agent sent him the Psych pilot script, telling him it was special and he should read it. Rodriguez then read it on his flight to New York and realized, "Sh--, he's right." So he agreed to meet with Steve Franks and they hit it off. They bonded over their love of Ferris Bueller and Real Genius, seeing Psych as potentially a mix of those two tones. But then one major star stood in the way. The studio wanted to offer the lead role to Matthew Perry. They did expect the Friends star to pass because they didn't have a big budget to pay him, but Roday Rodriguez says he was pretty nervous for about 48 hours until Perry said no. Perry chose to do Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip instead, and Rodriguez became Shawn Spencer in Psych. As for his costar and partner, Dulé Hill had spent eight years on The West Wing and was itching to show people his comedic side. Rodriguez told the TV Academy, "They really wanted Hill to get the part of Gus." So despite the fact that the two of them had never met before, Rodriguez went to Hill's house to rehearse with him prior to Hill's first audition, and that made their chemistry more believable. Rodriguez and Hill became great friends over the course of the series, and James was even a groomsman in Dulé Hill's wedding. While the show was set in Santa Barbara, they shot it in Vancouver. The pilot was done on location and its suburbs, but because of production difficulties of the show, they shot most of the show on soundstages at North Shore Studios, and they basically made Psych in isolation, which led to the show finding its own identity. Rodriguez explained, "We were shooting in Canada and we became a chosen family because none of us knew anybody except each other. The onset vibe was smooth and silly, and we had so much room to make it sillier. We really were the cast that looked forward to coming to work every day. We enjoyed the material, we knew we were going to laugh no matter what." Rodriguez went off script one day and picked up a pineapple on set, ad-libbing "Should I slice this up for the road?" That led to pineapples appearing in every single episode as a running gag, which is really indicative of the show's tone and comedy style going forward, but I'll get to that in a little bit. It's also worth mentioning that Rodriguez ended up co-writing 15 episodes of the show over its run. You often see actors direct episodes of their own show, but for one, episodes is pretty rare. Creator Steve Franks, along with his band The Friendly Indians, wrote the show's theme song, "I Know You Know." Psych then premiered on July 7th, 2006 to 6 million viewers and a 4.51 rating, which made it the highest-rated scripted series premiere on basic cable that year. Critics were mixed on the first season. 56% of the 39 reviews assessed by Rotten Tomatoes are positive, but fans didn't seem to mind. Weekly viewership was in the 3 to 5 million person range in its first three seasons. Critics came around later seasons had nearly unanimous positive reviews, though the show was only nominated for two Emmys over the years. While Psych had the framework of a detective series, it became best known for its nostalgic pop culture Easter eggs and dense callback humor. The show did a number of tribute episodes, including homages to Clue, Twin Peaks, and The Shining. The guys would often don elaborate pop culture costumes, and even the theme song changed for these special episodes. There was a Christmas version of the theme song, Spanish and Hindi covers, an acapella rendition by Boys II Men, and a superhero take on the song. And there were so many cool and winking guest stars from the 80s and 90s, including Cybill Shepherd, Rachel Leigh Cook, Felicia Rashad, Ernie Hudson, Keith David, Ally Sheedy, Cary Elwes, Kristy Swanson, William Shatner, Jeffrey Tambor, Anthony Michael Hall and yes, even Val Kilmer, star of Real Genius, in the show's series finale. Psych moved timeslots from Friday to Wednesday in the middle of season four, and viewership was never the same. The show slid into the 2 to 3 million viewer range until season seven, and then season eight dipped below 2 million viewers in an episode. Psych aired its series finale on March 26th, 2014. 1.93 million people tuned in, and after 121 episodes total, it seemed like that was it. But over time, Psych cultivated a mighty fan base who were clamoring for more. So in May 2017, USA Network greenlit a Psych follow-up movie. That summer, Steve Franks shared for the show with more movies, telling a Comic-Con crowd that he wished to do five Psych movies total. The movie, Psych: The Movie, then aired in December 2017. It got universal praise from critics and received 2.2 million viewers across its live airing and DVR watches. USA and its owners, NBC Universal, must have been pretty happy with that, then greenlit another Psych movie, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, in 2019. It premiered on Peacock, the streaming service's launch day, July 15th, 2020, earning an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. And then another Psych movie, Psych 3: This is Gus, which premiered on Peacock on November 18th, 2021. TV Guide gave it four and a half out of five stars. So three movies after eight seasons is pretty impressive legacy for a 2000s TV show, but it just shows how devoted the fan community really is. And Rodriguez and Shawn have written a fourth movie and are ready to go make it as soon as Peacock gives them a green light. He said, "quote, more likely that same on a new show that would add subscribers." But considering how many times Psych has risen from the grave in the past, never say never. Thanks for watching. If you've made it to the end, drop a "C'mon son" in the comments. For more movie and TV history, check out the attached playlist and listen to the Pop Culture Brain podcast for the latest movie and TV news.